Live from Hudson Yards: Crew's first-ever live podcast, recorded at the AI GTM Paddle Club Event at Reserve with roughly 150 of New York's best GTM operators in the room. Crew's twelfth event in two years, and the first one on a padel court.
The Panel
Chris Balestras, Partner at Crew, hosting. Started at Salesforce, moved into early-stage sales, then founded Crew.
Curt Clauss, Partner at Crew, heading up the AE and sales leadership practice. Twelve years in tech sales across Series A through E, including runs at Harvey and Outreach, plus founding AE experience.
Matthew Roberts, Crew's SDR leadership practice, three months in. Ten years in SDR leadership, and hiring was always his favorite part.
Caitlin Desai, Co-founder at Crew, running exec recruiting. Seventeen years as a GTM IC and leader at Bay Area companies including Box and Dropbox, and watched a company go from $1M to $1B in ARR.
Plus drop-ins from Mark Ebert of Profound and George of Basis, Head of GTM.
Discussed in This Episode:
- Why Paul Graham thinks “GTM” sounds bogus, and why Crew is doubling down with 200 hats
- The Stripe origin story of the GTM rebrand, and why every AI native inherited it
- CRO musical chairs at the labs: Paul Smith, Denise Dresser, and Dolly's arrival
- How Wiz ran the equivalent of a six-to-twelve-month enterprise sale in six days
- Curt's 80/20 for vetting a startup AE role: tier one investor, inbound mix, real product market fit
- Read the wins channel. Cobwebs and crickets tell you what the pitch won't
- Andy Kofoid's four-to-five-year rule, and why it lacks nuance for startup operators
- The three reasons people actually stay: quota, learning, equity
- Commission breath: are the best reps coin operated, or is it the story behind the answer?
- Prep, don't creep. Green flag if you did the research, red flag if you're weird about it
- GTM mafias: Stripe, MongoDB, Metronome, Slack, Segment, Listen Labs, Cursor
- Mark Ebert on Profound's pivot from single-product to multi-product, and training a team running 150 miles an hour
Timestamps
- (00:00) Live from Hudson Yards: Crew's first live podcast
- (05:00) Paul Graham vs. the GTM rebrand
- (11:00) CRO musical chairs at OpenAI and Anthropic
- (15:00) How Wiz ran a six-day enterprise deal
- (20:00) Mark Ebert on Profound's pivot to multi-product
- (29:00) The 80/20 of picking a startup AE role
- (31:30) Read the wins channel before you sign
- (39:00) Andy Kofoid's four-year rule, and why Chris disagrees
- (45:30) Are the best reps coin operated?
- (55:30) GTM mafias: Stripe, Mongo, Metronome, Cursor
About The Crew Podcast
The Crew podcast interviews GTM leaders and investors at top AI startups and early-stage companies.
Every week, host Chris Balestras, partner @ Crew, talks to the people actually building go-to-market motions in real time, not in retrospect.
About Crew
Crew is a recruiting, investing, & media firm for seed through series D AI-natives & fast-growing SaaS startups.
Where to Find Crew
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crewgtm
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecrewgtm
Website: https://www.withcrew.ai/
Blog: https://www.withcrew.blog/
